Oct 6, 2012 12:44 PM

My son found this (below, more pics attached) on the beach in Southwold, Suffolk. We don't know what it is, can anyone help? It was white when we found it, but went brown and a little mouldy before I could got around to taking pictures. Now preserving it in salt water!

This is fascinating! Yesterday we retd from 3 nights in Thorpeness. On Sat we walked from Thorpeness to Aldeburgh and my 5 yr old nephew found something very similar, it was as you say sort of cartiledge like, ours had a sort of pointed tail on it too. It did smell slightly rotten! I would love to know what it is. what a coincidence, just a few miles away!

I found one of these over ten years ago (somehow it's still intact) and only recently figured out what it was through the anatomy class I am taking this semester. I took it by my professor who confirmed that it is a shark chondrocranium (base layer of the skull). Unless I'm mistaken, yours is too! I don't know about specific species though (I found mine in North Carolina, USA so they're probably different).